Sony's $399 Reader Daily Edition Adds AT&T 3G, Looks To Rival Kindle

When Sony introduced its Reader Pocket Edition and Reader Touch Edition
earlier this month, we definitely didn't see this coming. We knew the
company was planning on releasing a connected Reader in the future, but
evidently Sony meant "the near future." At an event today in the Big
Apple, Sony introduced its newest and most attractive e-book reader to
date with the Reader Daily Edition.

The biggest difference between this Reader and every other one that
Sony has unveiled is the inclusion of 3G. The device will utilize
AT&T's network in America in order to let users download new
material anywhere that AT&T has coverage, which is a big step up
from the "plug your Reader into your PC" approach. There's no doubt
that Sony is finally getting serious about rivaling Amazon's Kindle,
which has boasted Sprint connectivity from day one. Steve Haber,
president of Sony’s Digital Reading Business Division, was
understandably excited about the announcement:

"We firmly believe consumers should have choice in every aspect of
their digital reading experience. Today, we take another large stride
to deliver on that promise. We now have the most affordable devices on the market, the greatest access to free and affordable eBooks through The
eBook Store from Sony and our affiliated ecosystem, and now round out
our Reader offering with a wireless device that lets consumer purchase
and download content on the go."

The newest Reader sports a 7" touch screen display, USB support, free
wireless access to Sony's eBook store (for US users only), 16 levels of
grayscale, an aluminum body with an integrated cove, expansion memory
card slots, and enough internal memory to hold over 1,000 standard
eBooks. The unit also includes the company's eBook Library software
version 3.0, which has support for OS X, EPUB, Word, BBeB and a few
other text file formats. Speaking of the eBook store, Sony has
overhauled it in order to make finding books easier, and it also
announced relationships with a variety of traditional and digital
publishers who
provide content in industry standard formats to create a universe of
reading material compatible with the Reader.

The new Reader Daily Edition will ship this December in time for the holidays for around $399.